I just think of something like Monument Valley - not a throwaway - tons of work - and it DID make them rich. Rightfully so. I guess I'd like to see at least SOME mention of that aspect of it.
As for Monument Valley, that's a pretty poor example. They invested 1.5m and made 5.8m. For a core team of 8 people it's not fuck you money. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/527b69fbe4b0febeee4fc...
They didn't even make 10x their investment. There is a strong argument to made that a 10x project is the minimum you need just to have a sustainable company. Sustainable! That's a long, long way from rich. http://www.lostgarden.com/2015/04/minimum-sustainable-succes...
There are many ways to define success. ustwo is a 300+ person design company. Their mobile games could lose money but still be considered a success.
"One Mac app developer made it up to No. 8 with just 59 downloads"
If you make it to number 8 with so few downloads, there probably isn't much of a market.
[1] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/quick-resizer/id498486288?mt...
In all seriousness, when you figure it out, that's about $15/hr. I think a number of entrepreneurs would give their right arm to make that kind of money right at launch. And when you consider that he's probably going to be selling at least a few more copies of this, the money he'll make off of his time investment will grow.
In any event, I hope he didn't quit his day job to make a photo-blurring utility.